Regardless of how experienced you are in the gym, there are times when almost everyone faces some type of hurdle. Perhaps they are not seeing the weight loss results they are looking for, or maybe they got themselves injured and are now looking to recover as quickly as possible.
Whatever the hurdle you're currently facing, it's important to look at three aspects to overcome this - diet, workout, and supplementation.
If you aren't following a proper diet or workout program, that is typically what will cause the hurdle in the first place, but once you've made changes to both of these aspects to get them back in line with where they should be, then you should consider taking a look at some of the supplements that are out on the market that may help you.
Here are some of the training dilemma's you may be experiencing and what supplements may help you overcome these.
1. Early Fatigue During Your Workout
- Have you ever had one of those days where you've gone into the gym, performed one or two exercises and then felt like you just crashed? Experiencing high levels of fatigue very early in the workout can be extremely discouraging because despite your best intensions to complete that workout, your body has other plans.
The first thing to look at with this problem is that your program is planning properly. If you're trying to do too frequent workouts or workouts that contain way too much volume that's likely what's behind the issue.
If that's not the case, then you should think about supplementation.
Supplement To Use:
- One of the primary molecules involved with producing muscular contractions during your weight lifting workout is
- . This is the molecule that helps formulate the high energy compound, ATP, which is used as a fuel source for each weight lifting rep you do.
When the body no longer has enough creatine phosphate to synthesize the needed ATP, that's when fatigue sets in and you're no longer able to continue.
You will typically get some creatine from your diet on a regular basis, but if you're workouts are intense, this may not be sufficient to power you through. By adding the supplement to your day however, you really saturate the body's stores, so that when you are in the gym working out, there is plenty available.
Many individuals are under the mistaken belief that creatine will automatically boost your strength levels, but this is incorrect. What creatine will do is allow you to workout longer and harder in the gym, thus getting better results from the effort you put in. If you're fatiguing early on, you really aren't going to see results, so this supplement is one of the best ways to overcome this training problem.
2. Persistent Muscle Soreness
- It's quite normal to be slightly sore after a workout, particularly if you've just introduced a new exercise, rep range, or entire workout protocol. If you're finding that you're constantly so sore that it's keeping you out of the gym, over time this will influence your progress.
Being sure to perform some stretching exercises as well as ten minutes of light cardio at the end of your weight workout will go a long ways towards reducing this soreness, but if it's still impacting you, then you need to consider something else.
Supplement To Use:
- is a supplement that many people who train quite intensely take to help speed up the recovery process between their workouts so they can get into the gym on a more regular basis.
Glutamine is naturally taken in throughout the diet, but since it is used to fight everyday stressors that you run into, when you add in intense workouts to this as well, your reserves often get exhausted before the recovery is completed.
To remedy this issue, you just need to add an outside supplement so you can boost the present glutamine in the body on a regular basis. This way, you will be less likely to see a deficiency taking place.
3. Lack Of Energy
- Feel like it's going to take every ounce of energy to just get yourself off the couch to go do your workout, let alone actually completing that workout? If so, you aren't alone.
In today's busy world it's not uncommon to be fatigued at the end of the day and to feel as though you'd rather just go home and snooze on the couch. In some cases you may just be better off skipping the workout since it won't be all that effective anyway if you're extremely fatigued, but if this is happening on an ongoing basis then you're going to have to do something about it.
Supplement To Use:
- Try using a
- supplement for a quick energy burst. So many people use this supplement every single day without even thinking about it, but forget to consider the impacts it can have on workout performance.
For best results, you should aim to wean yourself off regular coffee (switch to decaf) so that when you do take caffeine before your workout, you really notice its effects.
200 milligrams is the standard dose to use, but larger individuals or those who are more adapted to caffeine's effects may wish to use more.
You can also browse through some of the other energy-boosting supplements on the market (both with and without stimulants) to boost your performance.
4. Out Of Control Hunger
- For those of you who are currently on a
- , it's almost a certainty that at some point you are going to feel hunger. Whenever you're taking in fewer calories than your body would ideally like, it will fight back by causing this strong desire to eat.
At first you may easily be able to fight back against this but if it persists day after day, eventually you may find yourself becoming incredibly tempted to add an additional snack or meal to your plan.
There are a few tricks you can use with your diet to help prevent hunger such as focusing more on protein and healthy fats as these tend to blunt hunger levels as well as filling your plate with high-fiber, low calorie vegetables that fill you up quickly. After you've exhausted these options, if hunger still persists you may need to seek out something else.
Hoodia originated in the South African Desert and was originally used by hunters when they went on long expeditions to help prevent hunger development so they could stay out longer.
Many people find that hunger is completely absent when using this product, so it proves to be a very helpful aid to those who are dieting intensely.
If you are going to choose to use this supplement however, be sure you are still paying close attention to your diet to ensure that you are getting the calories that you need. Low calorie diets are required for maximum fat loss, but there is a limit with just how low you can take your calories before negative results are experienced.
5. Frequent Muscle Cramps
- Nothing will stop a workout faster than a sudden muscle cramp. Some individuals will find they only get these when they are doing intense exercise, while others may also experience them at other times during the day - even when they're just sitting at their desk working.
Those who also have quite a high sodium intake with their diet may need extra potassium as well to help regulate the fine balance between these two minerals.
You can definitely make sure you're eating foods that contain plenty of potassium, but the supplement will be a much more concentrated form allowing you to reach a high intake easier.
Conclusion
So keep all of these training dilemmas in mind along with their appropriate actions. You should never let yourself give up on a training program before you've thoroughly looked at what's causing the problem and ways you might be able to go about solving the issue.